Winnie Lee Devore

September 21, 1947 August 6, 2026 Winnie Lee Devore, a lifelong Albuquerque resident, accomplished Realtor, dev oted mother and grandmother, world traveler, and loyal friend, passed away on August 6, 2026, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was 78.

To know Winnie was to know someone who rarely did anyt hing halfway. She approached life with intelligence, determination, curiosity, generosity, and an almost boundless supply of energy. Whether she was building a career, tending her garden, planning a trip, hosting a party, helping a friend, or gathering her family together, Winnie was all in.

Born September 21, 1947, in Schenectady, New York, Winnie was the daughter of Robert and Winnie Devore, both originally from Pueblo, Colorado. Her parents married just before World War II and then spent several years moving with Bob’s work for General Electric before settling in Albuquerque, where he began a long career at Sandia National Laboratories.

Albuquerque quickly became home. Winnie attended Bandelier Elementary School, Wilson Junior High School, and Highland High School, where the drive and leadership that would characterize her adult life were already apparent. She was president of several clubs, a member of the National Honor Society, and active in school and community organizations.

After high school, Winnie participated in a summer exchange program in France. The experience awakened a lifelong fascination with other countries, cultures, languages, and people, and began a love affair with travel that would eventually take her to more than 100 countries on six continents.

Winnie attended the University of New Mexico, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega, graduated with honors, and met John Mahoney. They married and had two children, Erin and Jill. While John served in the Navy, the young family lived on the East Coast before embarking on what would become one of Winnie’s defining adventures: she received a fellowship to pursue a master’s degree in French, specializing in Old French and Provencal, in Montpellier, France. The family packed up and moved to France for a year, an experience that perfectly suited Winnie’s adventurous spirit.

Back in Albuquerque, Winnie built a remarkable career in real estate. For more than 40 years, she was consistently among the city’s top-producing Realtors, earning multiple Salesperson of the Year honors and the respect of generations of clients and colleagues. She was ambitious and competitive, but her success was more than transactional. Winnie genuinely cared about people. She brought the same energy, attention, and determination to helping her clients that she brought to nearly every other part of her life.

Her commitment to her community extended well beyond her professional life. Winnie volunteered extensively, including serving as president of Habitat for Humanity and supporting The Hunger Project. Giving back was simply part of the way she lived.

For all she accomplished professionally, family remained at the center of Winnie’s world. She loved traveling with those closest to her and bringing everyone together for holidays and celebrations. For many years, some of the family’s happiest traditions centered around holidays at the family cabin near Taos, where children and grandchildren gathered and memories accumulated from one year to the next.

Retirement did little to slow her down. Winnie was always doing something and quite often several things at once. Long before “multitasking” became part of everyday vocabulary, Winnie had perfected it. She might take a phone call while working in the garden or knit her way through a string recital, fully engaged in both.

Her interests were as varied as her travels. She loved knitting and sewing, gardening, theater and opera, choral music, reading, fashion, tennis, hiking, and entertaining. She was a wonderful host and loved a good party, especially when it meant filling a room with family and friends.

And then there was travel. Winnie’s curiosity about the world never diminished after that first summer in France. She was always eager to see what was around the next corner, experience another culture, and come home with another story.

Winnie is survived by her children, Erin Mahoney (Dana) and Jill Mahoney (Alex); her grandchildren, Dillon Mahoney, Devin (Mahoney) Gallardo, Megan Mahoney, and Ryan Mahoney; her great-granddaughter, Emerson Gallardo; her siblings, Robin Devore (Carol) and Holly Devore (Chad); as well as extended family and many dear friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Robert and Winnie Devore.

Winnie’s life was expansive in the places she traveled, the work she accomplished, the friendships she cultivated, and the family she loved. She showed up for life with enthusiasm and expected a lot from it and from herself.

Those who knew Winnie will remember her energy, her determination, her intelligence, her sense of adventure, and the unmistakable way she threw herself wholeheartedly into whatever mattered to her.

She lived fully, traveled widely, loved deeply, and rarely sat still. And that was Winnie.